How paedophiles gained access to establishment by working with young people

Home » Blog » How paedophiles gained access to establishment by working with young people

In The Times yesterday it was reported that child-sex campaigners and doctors admitted that paedophiles had become so fixed in jobs working with children in the 1970s that one of their leaders suggested that if they staged a national strike many schools would close.

The Times also reported that paedophile groups wooed government-funded charities so that they could gain access to opinion formers and invented a “children’s rights” movement, campaigning on issues such as corporal punishment, as a cover for their real purpose of decriminalising sex between adults and children.

In a factsheet prepared by the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), the organisation observed that teachers, clergymen, scoutmasters and youth workers were particularly prone to “child love”. It said: “Paedophiles are naturally drawn to work involving children, for which many of them have extraordinary talent and devotion. If this field were to be ‘purged’, there would be a damaging reduction of people left to do the work.”

The government-funded Albany Trust, a counselling service, was used by paedophile campaigners to gain access to influential people in society. “Recent talks with the Albany Trust have proved useful in a number of ways,” said an article in the Paedophile Awarness and Liberation (PAL’s) newsletter.

“Firstly, the trust’s present policies are such that their co-operation has more to offer PAL than groups interested only in homosexuality. Secondly, the trust is in a position to provide useful contacts with other groups and organisations. [We will continue] to work with the Albany Trust in the coming months, and we are confident that this will not only be of great value to PAL and its members, but also as regards furthering the understanding and acceptance of paedophilia amongst non-paedophiles.”

PIE was introduced to Albany Trust by the mental health charity Mind. The director of Mind at the time was also a senior figure in The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), which accepted PIE and PAL as members. Mind have apologised and Albany Trust now says that it disassociates itself from organisations promoting child sex abuse.

PIE was helped by Release, the drug users’ charity. A submission from PIE to the Home Office, arguing for the decriminalisation of sex with children, gave Release’s offices as PIE’s holding address. Release said that it was “shocked and deeply upset that there was, or could have been, any connection between our work and the repugnant activities and despicable views promoted by PIE”.

PIE also infiltrated the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and PIE’s leader tabled a successful motion at its 1975 conference. He said that it was “absurd” for it to disassociate itself from paedophilia because there were “many gay paedophiles” inside and outside of the campaign group.

The evidence has emerged as the government prepares a national inquiry into historical child abuse.